Method and means of joining copper parts by resistance welding

ABSTRACT

A method and means for joining copper parts by resistance welding by coating such parts to be joined at the points prior to welding with a paste containing a mixture of powdered silver solder or powdered silver and a soldering flux.

United States Patent Inventor Albert floeffleur Alte Landstrssse 29, Kusnacht, Zurich, Switzerland App]. No. 730,919 Filed May 21, 1968 Patented Aug. 31, 1971 Priority May 23, 1967 1 Switzerland 7271/67 METIIOD AND MEANS OF JOINING COPPER PARTS BY RESISTANCE WELDING Primary Examiner-J. V. Truhe Assistant ExaminerJ. G. Smith AIIorney-Watson, Cole, Grindle & Watson ABSTRACT: A method and means for joining copper parts by resistance welding by coating such parts to be joined at the points prior to welding with a paste containing a mixture of powdered silver solder or powdered silver and a soldering flux.

METHOD AND MEANS OF JOINING COPPER PARTS BY RESISTANCE WELDING The invention relates to a method of joining copper parts together by resistance welding and to means of putting this method into practice.

The welding of copper parts with resistance-welding sets, and spot welding in particular. has hitherto been extremely difficult. Welding copper parts in the normal manner. that is to say by the use of copper electrodes, is not possible. because the electrodes and the parts to be welded together have the same specific resistance. so that the electrodes themselves become welded when that method is employed; nor has the use of electrodes made of precious metals in place of copper electrodes proved satisfactory in this connection.

To overcome these difficulties, one method which has not previously been proposed is to place silver alloy foil between the parts to be welded. For spot welding, however, the piece of foil used needs to be very large in relation to the area of the weld spot, because of the chance of its slipping out of position. When the weld has been made, the edges of foil extending outside the actual weld spot remain loose between the welded faces and cannot usually be removed. Apart from that, it frequently happens in spot welding, when the objects to be ,welded are fed forward automatically, that the pieces of foil slip so far out of position that none at all is left at the point of the weld. The electrodes thereupon become welded on, at which point the work must be brought to a halt, fresh electrodes have to be fitted and in many cases, too, the article that is being assembled or the two parts being welded must be rejected because of faulty welding.

What the invention sets out to do is to find a method of welding copper parts, and to provide means of putting that method into practice, whereby welding can be carried out simply and satisfactorily with resistance-welding equipment.

This the invention achieves by virtue of the fact that, in work of the kind described, the copper parts to be welded together are coated at the weld points, before welding takes place, with a welding paste containing a mixture of powdered silver solder or powdered silver and a soldering flux.

It is also of advantage of the copper parts that are to be welded to be stuck together with this welding paste prior to welding. To enable this to be done, the welding paste may also contain adhesive ingredients The invention also includes a means of putting this method into practice, in the form of a welding paste containing a mixture of powdered silver solder or powdered silver and a soldering flux.

The invention is described hereunder in detail, with the aid of one or two practical examples. For putting the proposed method into practice, the parts to be weldedfor instance. the edges of two sheets of copper that require welding-are coated on at least one face with the welding paste, the composition of which may conform to one of the examples given below. For this purpose, it is advisable, in the case of spot welding, to apply the welding paste, in the areas to be welded, over the entire length along which the sheets are to be welded. exactly the same as for stitch or seam welding. Then, if the sheets, or those parts thereof which are to be welded, are pressed firmly together. the welding paste pressed between the two edges that have been brought together for welding acts, because of its adhesion. like a cement, which holds the edges together even before they have been welded. In this way, great accuracy of welding can be obtained. The adhesion of the welding paste can be further enhanced by the addition to it of adhesive ingredients, that is to say ingredients which promote adhesion between the paste and the metal surfaces, such as, for example, polyiso-butylene, polybutadiene or a polyvinyl ether. A number of other polyvinyl compounds can also be used for this purpose, such as, for instance. polyvinyl acetate and polyvinyl propionate.

At the same time, even if the welding paste contains additional adhesive ingredients, the adhesion between the parts. when these have been pressed together for welding with the welding paste in between, is generally not St great that the parts cannot be separated again before welding, as ma be necessary in some circumstances, such as when the parts ha ve been wrongly or inaccurately put together.

The sheets to be welded having thus been brought into contact and pressed together, spot, stitch or seam welding is carried out with the aid of a resistance-welding set Initially the welding paste offers relatively high resistance and the actual current paths lie substantially through the particles of silver solder or powdered silver, which are in contaci on both sides with the faces to be welded. As the total conducti e cross section formed by all these particles is relatively small, the silver solder or silver becomes overheated by Joule effect and melts The flux is heated at the same time and prepares the surfaces for welding. Since the particle sizes of the silver solder or powdered silver are not uniform, as the largest particles melt together or soften, further smaller particles also come into contact with the faces to be joined and form additional current paths, so that the welding current, initially very small. in creases almost continuously during welding and can be cut off when at a maximum value safely below that which there is a likelihood or possibility of the electrodes becoming welded to the parts it is required to join. The current value in question. at which there is a possibility of the electrodes being welded to the parts to be joined, is determined partly by the area of contact between the electrodes and the copper parts and partly by the minimum current density at which welding may be expected to occur If the welding current be cut off at a maximum level sufficiently below that level to afford a margin of safety, the welding of the electrodes to the workpieces can be prevented with absolute certainty. However, the electrodes may also be applied for a given limited period, so short that, even if this maximum current level be exceeded. the electrodes cannot possibly heat up to welding temperature in that case, this limited period must not greatly exceed that required on average for the welding current to rise continuously. as already described, to the said maximum level The case iiiii hich electrodes may be applied in this wai for a limited period arises more particularly in seam welding. but even w th spot and stitch welding, this procedure can be followed, that is to say applying the electrodes for a limited period The electrodes to be used for welding copper parts together by the method here proposed may be of the type normally used in resistance-welding sets, that is to say as a rule. copper electrodes. The present method makes it posible, for the first time, to join copper to copper with resistan e-w elding equipment without any difiiculty. It can be applie-l in mass production, in which it results in considerable economy, mainly in the matter of labor costs. A great deal of material can also be saved in this way.

The composition of the welding paste used for this method may conform to one of the following examples EXAMPLE I 40 parts by weight of powdered LAg 45 silver solder con sisting of 45 percent Ag, 18 percent Cu, 20 percent Cd and 17 percent Zn;

60 parts by weight of soldering flux containing 50 percent rosin, 38 percent tallow and 12 percent sal ammoniac EXAMPLE 2 50 parts by weight of powdered LAg l2 d silver solder, consisting of 12 percent Ag, 45 percent Cu, 7 percent Cd and 36 percent Zn;

50 parts by weight of soldering flux containing 45 percent rosin, 45 percent tallow and 10 percent sal ammoniac EXAMPLE 3 25 parts by weight of powdered silver powdered silver and powered silver solder between the copper parts at the intended joint therebetween.

2 locating copper welding electrodes for passing current through the copper parts and said coating at the intended joint therebetween, and

3. welding said copper parts along said joint by resistance welding.

2. A method according to claim 1 wherein said coating contains ingredients also having adhesive properties 

2. A method according to claim 1 wherein said coating contains ingredients also having adhesive properties.
 2. locating copper welding electrodes for passing current through the copper parts and said coating at the intended joint therebetween, and
 3. welding said copper parts along said joint by resistance welding. 